Promote anything by creating quick videos with Animoto

If you want to create a video for an upcoming event as part of your publicity campaign, or for a product or service you’re launching, and you’re on a tight deadline, here’s a great alternative to a talking-head video where you have to look good.

Animoto lets you produce TV-quality music videos using your own photos, or stock photos, in just minutes. You don’t need any technical expertise. If you can click the mouse, you can create a professional-looking video that has a lot of pizzazz.

I’m doing publicity for my garden club’s annual plant sale May 23. Yesterday, I created this fun little video in less than an hour and uploaded it to YouTube:

How I did it:

First, I chose my still photos. I took photos with my iPhone at a garden club event over the weekend. We were planting annuals inside teacups to sell at the plant sale.

Then I searched Animoto’s limited photo archive for photos of flowers.

In Animoto, I lined them up according to how I wanted them to appear in the video.

Next, I wrote all the text boxes.

When all the photos and text boxes were in place on the tiles, I clicked and dragged to rearrange them. One thing that tripped me up: When you create a text box, it appears as the first tile, right at the beginning of the video. Once you’ve added text, click and drag it to whereever you want it to appear in the sequence.

When I produced the video, I chose one of Animoto’s jazz soundtracks, Blowin’ in from Chicago, from Hank Hirsh.

Animoto worked its magic behind the scenes and delivered a sharp-looking video with fun transitions.

If you don’t like the way the video looks, you can ask Animoto to remix it for you. No two videos are the same, so you never know what the second version will look like.

Share your Animoto videos

Sharing your videos is a cinch. Add them to your MySpace & Facebook profiles, on your blog, email them to friends, put them up on YouTube or download them onto your computer. I uploaded mine to YouTube, added it to my Facebook profile and sent it to everyone in the garden club. Later this week, I’ll upload the video to the local TV stations’ websites.

Some of Animoto’s founders used to produce shows for MTV, Comedy Central & ABC. They studied classical music in London, played in rock bands in Seattle and developed software in Japan. They developed a patent-pending, Cinematic Artificial Intelligence that thinks like an actual editor and director.

How much it costs

You can create all the 30-second videos you want, for free. Each can accommodate from 12 to 15 images.

An all-access, non-commercial pass costs $30. Or buy a non-commercial three-month pass for $99. I paid $249 for an annual commercial pass which gives me several nice options the two others don’t have. First, I can remove the Animoto logo from the video. Second, I can include a button at the end that lets visitors click and visit a website.

Animoto supports not-for-profits and other humanitarian causes with free pro accounts. You can apply at the site.

One other thing I’ll do differently the next time I create a video. When I produced the video, Animoto gave me the option of mentioning the musician’s name and the name of the song, which I did. But after I uploaded it to YouTube, YoutTube notified me and said I might be violating copyright. It said I don’t need to do anything but I can refute that if I so choose. I decided to do nothing.

Also, when visitors click on the link to watch the YouTube video, YouTube gives them the option of buying the music while the video is playing, which is distracting. Next time, I’ll remove the artist’s name from the video.

About Joan Stewart

Publicity expert Joan Stewart, a PR mentor aka The Publicity Hound, works with small business owners who need free publicity to promote their expertise. She shows you how to establish your credibility, enhance your reputation, position yourself as an expert, and sell more products and services. To receive her free DIY publicity tips twice a week, subscribe here. See all the ways you can work with Joan. Or contact her and ask a burning question about PR, self-promotion or social media.

Thanks so much for alerting us to animoto. I was just about to send out an email promoting the pre-release price of my book. Creating the video was a much better idea, and it didn’t take long. Here’s the link to the video embedded on my blog at http://tinyurl.com/coloryourlife

I must have subscribed to your newsletter and don’t remember, but I just watched and really enjoyed this. Clearly you share good info. I was asked to be a “publicist” recently for two different people promoting their books. Turned out the one person is quite the publicist herself — I guess just “picking my brain”…..and the other, well, I wasn’t healthy at the time and declined. I just felt like I knew what it would entail to do it right….and I just wasn’t up to the task at that time.

Here’s a pretty random question: I have never been a publicist. I had to look up (almost) what a publicist does…although its pretty self-explanatory. They must have asked me because I have some natural feel for this kind of thing, and many years ago worked in corporate advertising and pr…then freelanced for ad agencies, etc. The question: as a now 54 year young person who WOULD like to get into doing something from home, perhaps…or in the general Phila area….does anything come to mind as a starting point? Just a learning opportunity? I certainly enjoyed the creative aspect of your putting that piece together so quickly. That just seems flat out fun! Internships? World’s a changin….I hear there are internships out there for grown-ups now!!!! Thank you for your interesting newsletter. Wonderful! Anne

If I were you in your shoes, Anne, I’d use Animoto to create PR videos for clients, and then upload them to YouTube and the other video sharing sites. So many people despise video and refuse to get their hands dirty. A PR person or a virtual assistant could add this service to their offerings.

If you had fun with Animoto, like I did, I think this could be a nice revenue stream for you. You could, of course, combine these services with writing press releases and pitching stories to the media. Be sure to check out my free press release writing tutorial at http://www.89PressReleaseTips.com.

Wouldn’t using the music on your video without a credit to the musician be a REAL copyright infringement? Sounds like some lawyer at You Tube is covering his company’s butt against any possible lawsuits. If I were the artist/musician, I would be happy to have the publicity for a possible sale of my music. I can see your points, but as a person promoting publicity, why would you cut out the author of the music on your video? You liked their music enough to use it with YOUR photos!

How cool this is! Thanks so much for sharing this, I can see a use with my clients and the local women’s group I belong to. I love free tools – and even the paid version is affordable for everyone.
A thought: This could also be used as as a “computerized Vision Board” … other companies sell those packages for much higher prices.
Love getting these tips in the newsletter – thanks again,
Veronika Freeman, dotcalm

What a great tip! I created a trial 30-second spot (which I’ll never use) just to try it out — and now that I know how easy it is, I can make more for real. And thanks for pointing out that nonprofits can get the “pro” plan for free — hope they’ll give us this break!

Great Video and quality. My friend runs a fresh fruit and vegetable stand and promotes her other private label products there and could easily take pictures and put up a video for her. I love this idea and I can’t believe how easy it is to do. I will be using the service for my for my Breast Cancer Golf Outing next summer. Thanks for the great ideas I have already received from your website today.

Video can be incredibly intimidating. But this easy-to-use program makes it less so–and fun, too!

I should add that Animoto recently lifted its requirement that forces customers to remove Animoto videos from the Internet if they don’t renew their subscriptions. I always thought that was sleazy and complained to Animoto. Apparently others did, too.

P.S. I’m an affiliate and get a commission from Animoto if I send paying customers their way.

I definitely understand the appeal of something you can do yourself, quickly and easily. However… I’ve seen a lot of book trailers with the still photos/printed text/random song, and most of the time, they are just plain boring. I put together a live-action video for my Haunted children’s book series, with a borrowed video camera, local actors, and costumes borrowed from the community theater. A friend created the original soundtrack, and my husband had video editing experience (got lucky there!) It took some time, but cost nothing, and I think it was definitely worth it.

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